Olympus fraud saga rumbles on with UK prosecution

Olympus will be prosecuted by the UK Serious Fraud Office over charges that it provided 'misleading, false or deceptive' material in accounts submitted by its medical supplies subsidiary Gyrus Group Limited. Earlier this year three former senior executives of the company were handed suspended jail sentences for their part in a massive accounting scandal which hid huge investment losses dating back to the 1990s, and was uncovered by former CEO Michael Woodford.

A statement issued by Olympus states that the potential impact on the Group's business is unclear, as it's difficult to estimate the level of any fines which may be imposed if the prosecution is successful.

Comments

The Japanese legal system simply gave them a rap over the knuckles. Justice for US, UK and other nation's citizens needs to be seen to be done. Think of those whose pension funds were hit, or whose savings were affected, and the impact on long serving employees' pensions.

So peevee1 and others with a similar twisted sense of duty, please take note.

YEH! All those Wall Street types rotting in jail after plunging the world into financial chaos with shady mortgage deals. Methinks Japan's record, as miserable as it is, is better than either the US or the UK.

as many as 1/4 of the population favor the gods or totalitarianism than fundamental human rights and they have a comfortable majority in the National Diet, control bureaucracy (including judiciary) and nearly 2000 major enterprises.

they backed up Olympus, helped the company to weather the disaster, and gave the company and criminals lightest punishment.

Where the photo business is concerned, the Japanese invented the 35mm camera, rangefinder camera like the Leica and Contax and the first SLR, the Exakta. Other countries might be content to copy and perhaps improve but when it comes to thinking outside the box, Japan is the place.

The Japanese rarely have invented things. They have "polished" existing designs but most of what they have "created" was a better copy of something that already existed. Look at the minolta autocord, it's almost an exact copy of the German rolleicord, just a nicer focusing lever vs the German model's knob. Even the name was copied!

If we hide our heads in the sand like that, things like this are allowed to happen all around us. Certainly we can't watch everyone but just ignoring it isn't an option either. Bad news, yep, I get it, nobody want's to hear bad news- but that's part of life take it or leave it.

Ignorance is merry bliss, indeed. It helps fraudsters succeed with impunity. Tsuyoshi Kikukawa will be so happy for the story to fade. To his chagrin, the bad Brit didn't play the hiding game, stay mum, and then get the blame. Might Japan's courts have been equally lenient? Ah, but what a sensational pic that would be for Tsuyoshi-san's album!

The fraud was to cover up losses made by previous people. Quite the opposite of making a fortune -- they were, in fact, pretending to be paying enormous sums for worthless stuff while diverting most of the money to secretly fill in the massive money-pit.

This is why the sentencing was so lenient.

Gyrus appears to be a UK based subsidiary that was involved in these transactions, and so the UK SFO has jurisdiction to investigate and potentially prosecute anyone involved in the UK. It seems odd that there has been such a long delay before kicking off the investigation.

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